Strong buying in real estate, insurance and transport could translate into only a marginal gain on the Qatar Stock Exchange.

Local retail investors turned marginally bullish as the 20-stock Qatar Index rose 0.08% to 8,134.46 points.

Islamic equities witnessed selling pressure on the bourse, whose year-to-date losses were at 22.06%.

The increased buying interests of non-Qatari individuals and Gulf institutions also helped the market, whose capitalisation was up 0.37% to QR443.85bn.

The market saw its index peak at more than 8,160 points within the first 30 minutes after which there were corrections taking the index to a low of less than 8,120 points. After witnessing robust demand, the market was rather on roller-coaster drive with occasional spikes but overall it settled mere six points higher.

Trade turnover and volumes were on the increase on the bourse, where banking and industrials sectors together accounted for about 73% of the total volume.

The Total Return Index was up 0.08% to 13,641.01 points and All Share Index by 0.51% to 2,285.46 points, whereas Al Rayan Islamic Index fell 0.33% to 3,172.62 points.

The realty index gained 2.42%, insurance (1.78%), transport (1%) and banks and financial services (0.12%), whereas industrials, telecom and consumer goods declined 0.16%, 0.05% and 0.02% respectively.

Major gainers included Ezdan, Qatar Insurance, Mazaya Qatar, Nakilat, Vodafone Qatar, Commercial Bank, Doha Bank, Woqod, Qatar Electricity and Water, Aamal Company and Mesaieed Petrochemical Holding; while QIIB, Qatar Islamic Bank, Qatar First Bank, Industries Qatar, Gulf International Services and Gulf Warehousing were among the losers.

Local retail investors turned net buyers to the tune of QR5.1mn compared with net sellers of QR2.48mn on October 26.

Non-Qatari individual investors’ net buying increased perceptibly to QR3.12mn against QR1.97mn last Thursday.

The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) funds’ net buying increased to QR1.49mn compared to QR0.44mn the previous trading day.

However, domestic institutions’ net profit booking grew considerably to QR8.29mn against QR4.02mn on October 26.

Non-Qatari institutions turned net sellers to the extent of QR1.41mn compared with net buyers of QR3.7mn last Thursday.

Total trade volume more than doubled to 9.31mn shares and value gained 13% to QR169.55mn, while deals fell 13% to 1,782.

The transport sector’s trade volume grew almost five-fold to 0.84mn equities and value by about seven-fold to QR36.97mn but on 27% decline in transactions to 131.

The banks and financial services sector’s trade volume more than quadrupled to 4.24mn stocks and value more than doubled to QR81.13mn on 33% increase in deals to 679.

The industrials sector’s trade volume more than doubled to 2.54mn shares, while value shrank 67% to QR27.1mn and transactions by 31% to 362.

The insurance sector’s trade volume doubled to 0.04mn equities and value more than doubled to QR1.72mn but on 40% slump in deals to 18.

There was 91% surge in the telecom sector’s trade volume to 1.05mn stocks, 51% in value to QR10.46mn and 24% in transactions to 204.

However, the real estate sector’s trade volume plummeted 51% to 0.52mn shares, value by 49% to QR7.81mn and deals by 43% to 284.

The consumer goods sector reported 13% plunge in trade volume to 0.07mn equities, 31% in value to QR4.36mn and 32% in transactions to 104.

In the debt market, there was no trading of government bonds and treasury bills.

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